"Our Princess," began the journal, "was married last night, Christmas Eve, in this year of 1793. When mother lit our tree and my sister Clarechen's children, Franz and Wolfgang, were clapping their little hands in joy, Ludwig lifted his hand.
"'Our Crown Prince has a wife now,' he said, and glanced at the clock.
"Baron von Sternberg, an old friend of my father's, came to-day to see mother and told us all that happened last night, for he was at the wedding.
"He said that our new Crown Princess was most beautiful in white with a crown of sparkling diamonds that the Queen herself had placed on her lovely golden head. Before she was married, the widow of the Great Frederick gave her a blessing, the blessing of an old woman, she said. Then came the wedding in the Ritter Saal. The altar was beneath a baldachin of purple velvet embroidered in crowns of gold, and hundreds of candles made a splendid light. Oh, how I should love to have seen all the velvets and jewels and the fine ladies with powdered hair and the men with their clothes of fine velvet!
"I long for the Court, and because of my father's fine position, I could go there, but my mother will not have it.
"No, she says, it is wicked there. Our King is too gay, and she told me a sad story of the Countess von Voss, the lady I saw in the procession, and who, it seems, is mother's old friend from girlhood. This lady went to Court very young and the King's brother fell in love with her, and it was all so unfortunate, for he must marry a Princess, and the Countess, her cousin.
"But the wedding.
"Ober-Consistorial Rath Sack performed the ceremony, for he had both baptised and confirmed our Crown Prince. The Berliners wished a fine illumination, but the Crown Prince would not have it.
"'Nay, nay, good Berliners,' he said, 'give the money to the widows and orphans of the soldiers killed in the war with France.'
"Ludwig says that he is much worried over the debts of his father, the King, who is jolly and beloved of the people, but who spends everything he can lay his hands on.